Francis Galton Quotes

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

Why wouldn't I help? What good reason do I have as a human being with power and a sense of empathy and morality, why wouldn't I do something?

I'm afraid we live at the mercy of a power, maybe a God, without mercy. And yet we find it, as I have, from others.

I haven't lost faith in human nature and I haven't decided to be less compassionate to strangers.

Though pleas'd to see the dolphins play, I mind my compass and my way.

The sea - this truth must be confessed - has no generosity. No display of manly qualities - courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness - has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power.

Pain and sorrow and misery have a right to our assistance: compassion puts us in mind of the debt, and that we owe it to ourselves as well as to the distressed.

Science is Christian, not when it condemns itself to the letter of things, but when, in the infinitely little, it discovers as many mysteries and as much depth and power as in the infinitely great.

I am very grateful for the opportunities I've had and feel I have a duty to repay my good fortune through philanthropic endeavors that expand the reach of human possibility and compassion.

It is the true duty of every man to promote the happiness of his fellow creatures to the utmost of his power.

Duty remains even when harm arises not from malevolence but from religious conviction or local custom or ordinary boneheadedness. What is the key is the well being of the victim not the motive of the perpetrator… I’d feel no better about your burning me at the stake out of deep spiritual yearning than I would because you were just having a bad day .

You can't fight if you have any compassion or anything like that.

We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. Immediately we abandon to God, and do the duty that lies nearest, and He packs our life with surprises all the time.... Leave the whole thing to Him, it is gloriously uncertain how He will come in, but He will come.

True generosity is a duty as indispensably necessary as those imposed on us by law.

The sea has been called deceitful and treacherous, but there lies in this trait only the character of a great natural power, which, to speak according to our own feelings, renews its strength, and, without reference to joy or sorrow, follows eternal laws which are imposed by a higher Power.

The greatest create of power you have on earth, whether you are an angel, a spirit, a man or woman or child is to help others.

If a man cannot tell what he wants to do, then he must find out what he ought to do. If desire has become complicated, then hold fast to duty.

The path of duty lies in what is near, and men seek for it in what is remote; the work of duty lies in what is easy, and men seek for it in what is difficult.

I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion--and where it isn't, that's where my work lies.

He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count 'em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.

With great power comes great responsibilty.

This is our special duty, that if anyone specially needs our help, we should give him such help to the utmost of our power.

If the past is not to bind us, where can duty lie? We should have no law but the inclination of the moment.

Their fate rested entirely on me. I could save them by telling the truth. I could destroy them by lying. No one should have that much power.

Reason shows us our duty; he who can make us love our duty is more powerful than reason itself.